Advocating a Virtuous Voluntaryism

Ron Paul: The Big Picture

Ron Paul is the only one that incorporates the following considerations into his ‘big picture’:

Our current mess (which can only get worse, regardless of who is President) is a result of:

a) The Federal Reserve’s reckless policy of manipulating our currency and the ability of businesses and individuals to take out responsible loans, and granting favors to international and large private banks. This has been going on for more than 98 years. The first major crash resulting therefrom was the Great Depression, which only lead us into WWII, Social Security, and Medicare.

b) The regulatory apparatus, which keeps market incentives from being recognized by investors and punishes investors for participating in the Free Market.

c) WWII, which served as a distraction from FDR’s poor economic policies and lead to the Marshall Plan to restore Europe to prosperity. Unfortunately, it did no such thing and cost us billions and leads directly to our current subsidization of the coming European fiscal collapse and the worlds lack of military might. We are policing the world not just for rogue nations but for our perfectly capable allies: Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Sweden, and Spain.

d) The National Debt at $15 Trillion. A result of borrowing money from our enemies in order to pay for our past extravagances and the failures of past Congresses to balance the budget. Deficit spending not only spends money that we don’t have, it distorts the Free Market and serves as a proxy regulatory apparatus.

e) Social Security and Medicare at $70 to$120 Trillion in unfunded liabilities. With our demographic shifts, this can never be paid off without making the enrollees forgive these debts. Hopefully enough of them will see the light and voluntarily choose to do so.

f) The coming vote of no confidence in the US Dollar by those to whom we owe money and those whom owe us money. This extends to a loss of confidence in American GDP, which gives the money its value (since it is not backed by gold), and which is artificially inflated by deficit spending, ‘stimulus’, and the Federal Reserve’s regime of credit expansionism. We will be unable to pay off our debts, but morally and legally obligated to still do so. We won’t even be able to afford the interest payments, let alone the principle. We will not be able to purchase oil or other foreign goods for a reasonable price, because the price of oil will no longer be based on the dollar, and the dollar will be transferrable into other currencies at a ratio not conducive to such purchases.

The immediate fix for these problems are outside the scope of the next few administrations, regardless of whom oversees them. But the next administration is crucial to getting the ball rolling. A collapse can be thwarted, but hard times will still be with us for a good, long time. What needs to be done is reign in the Fed, repeal economic and bureaucratic regulations, end foreign aid (which is much bigger than the official numbers), limiting most military interventions to defense and the prescriptions found in the Constitution, balancing budgets (by cutting whole departments, ending many benefits, and adding NO new programs), paying off debts with surpluses, phasing out and/or privatizing entitlements, and getting back to sound currency through a commodity-backed standard or competing currencies.

Simply cutting taxes (especially without corresponding budgetary cuts), allowing drilling, and confronting China or whatever other half-assed proposals the likes of Romney, Gingrich, and Santorum may have for little more than effect and sensation, will not fix much. They are all good proposals and might have worked if these things had never been broken or mishandled in the first place over the past several decades.

Obama and these RINOs are in the same boat, but neither of them propose any of what I have said that would be necessary to fix things.

Sure Romney wants to cut tax rates. But does he have a way of raising revenue or cutting back? Sure Romney wants to to eliminate regulations. But are they the right ones to cut at the right time and does he have others to replace them? Sure Romney wants to tackle economic and energy independence issues, but does he want to risk a hot war with the Middle East and a trade war with China?

Sure Gingrich wants to cut departments…and…replace them with other ones! (He wants to get rid of the Environmental Protection Agency and replace it with an Environmental Solutions Agency. What???). Sure Gingrich wants to slap the Fed on the wrist…by repealing two recent Acts of Congress that had little other effect on the economy than to help trigger the crisis, which could have been triggered by any number of unforeseen other things.

Sure Santorum wants religious liberty for some. But does he want essential liberties for everyone? Sure Santorum wants to get back to our founding principles. But does he have the slightest clue what they are? Sure Santorum wants to entice American corporations to reinvest in this country but cutting tax rates. But what about individuals who don’t have the choice to up and leave when things go south?

Other than that, their main plan is to defeat Obama. It sounds good until you realize how similar they are to him if not in what their proposals ARE, then in what their proposals AREN’T.